Official Movie Website Theatrical Release 01/27/2011 Home Video Not Available MPAA Rating Rated R for violence/ disturbing content including bloody images, and for pervasive language Running Time 117 Minutes Genre Suspense, Action Director Joe Carnahan Writer Joe Carnahan, Ian Mackenzie Jeffers Cast Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson, James Badge Dale, Nonso Anozie Studio Open Road Films |
THE GREY (2012)
SYNOPSIS
In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of
oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the
remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries
and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few
days to escape the icy elements - and a vicious pack of
rogue wolves on the hunt - before their time runs out. --
(C) Open Road Films
In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of
oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the
remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries
and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few
days to escape the icy elements - and a vicious pack of
rogue wolves on the hunt - before their time runs out. --
(C) Open Road Films
© 2003 St. Louis Movie Review Weekly. All rights reserved, except where indicated.
All movie titles, pictures, etc...are the property of their respective studios.
All movie titles, pictures, etc...are the property of their respective studios.
| ST. LOUIS MOVIE REVIEW WEEKLY |
One time Oscar Nominated Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List, Taken), definitely one of the most
underrated actors around today, pulls off another impressive Oscar Worthy performance in Joe
Carnahan (Smoking Aces, The A-Team) and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers’ film, The Grey. Based on
Jeffers short story “Ghost Walker”, this existentialism versus theological “survival” story is
exactly as the title hints, grey. The movie starts with a narrative by Ottway (Neeson) writing a
letter to the love of his life that has left him. He works in Alaska on an oil refinery as a sharp
shooting loner, killing anything that endangers the men working out in the brutal Alaskan
wilderness. At the beginning Ottway is considering death; however, after surviving a horrific plane
crash (brilliantly filmed), he chooses life. With seven other survivors they begin on a terrifying
journey to try and find help or shelter from the uncompromising Alaskan weather and the large
wolf pack whose den they crashed near. The cinematography of the Alaskan landscape is breath-
taking and chilling to the bone. This movie does not just show the audience what it would be like to
be caught in this situation; it transports them right into the middle of the action, punching them in
the gut. The sound editing is so precise that the moments of silence and snow crunching are
impactful and haunting as well as the soundtrack from the opening scene to the credits. We learn
a little bit about each character as the movie progresses, just enough to care and relate to them
without overshadowing Neeson’s character. Neeson uses his “don’t f with me attitude” we saw in
Taken to carry this film. The seven men mirror the wolf pack chasing them with Ottway being their
Alpha. The movie is beautiful yet graphic with simply an enigmatic ending appropriate for this
haunting film.
underrated actors around today, pulls off another impressive Oscar Worthy performance in Joe
Carnahan (Smoking Aces, The A-Team) and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers’ film, The Grey. Based on
Jeffers short story “Ghost Walker”, this existentialism versus theological “survival” story is
exactly as the title hints, grey. The movie starts with a narrative by Ottway (Neeson) writing a
letter to the love of his life that has left him. He works in Alaska on an oil refinery as a sharp
shooting loner, killing anything that endangers the men working out in the brutal Alaskan
wilderness. At the beginning Ottway is considering death; however, after surviving a horrific plane
crash (brilliantly filmed), he chooses life. With seven other survivors they begin on a terrifying
journey to try and find help or shelter from the uncompromising Alaskan weather and the large
wolf pack whose den they crashed near. The cinematography of the Alaskan landscape is breath-
taking and chilling to the bone. This movie does not just show the audience what it would be like to
be caught in this situation; it transports them right into the middle of the action, punching them in
the gut. The sound editing is so precise that the moments of silence and snow crunching are
impactful and haunting as well as the soundtrack from the opening scene to the credits. We learn
a little bit about each character as the movie progresses, just enough to care and relate to them
without overshadowing Neeson’s character. Neeson uses his “don’t f with me attitude” we saw in
Taken to carry this film. The seven men mirror the wolf pack chasing them with Ottway being their
Alpha. The movie is beautiful yet graphic with simply an enigmatic ending appropriate for this
haunting film.
By Brenda S. Ladd
